Erdoğan blames new CHP İstanbul head for 'insulting' Turkish state

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slammed on Jan. 16 the parliamentary main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) newly elected İstanbul chair Canan Kaftancıoğlu over her previous Twitter posts, accusing her of "provoking" people towards the Turkish state.

"She says 'Armenian genocide', she insults our history and nation," Erdoğan said, with reference to Kaftancıoğlu's previous Twitter posts on the Armenian question.

Erdoğan criticized the CHP party’s new İstanbul chair for her stance during the mass anti-government protests in June 2013 in İstanbul’s iconic Taksim Square and Gezi Park, accusing of her "provoking the demonstrations" and "calling the state as the serial murderer".

Erdoğan also blamed the CHP party administration for betraying Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey and the CHP. "What a pity for our country, If the alternative of Turkey is this CHP whose İstanbul head is this individual,” Erdoğan said.

Referring to the CHP party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Erdoğan continued, "Such an understanding, which turned the opposition into a mouthpiece of a terrorist organization and appointed terror organization members, has taken the CHP captive."

"I will ask the judiciary to account for those, particularly Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who have disgraced the state and state institutions with lies and tricks for the sake of their own prosperity," Kaftancıoğlu continued.

HDP CALLS ON WOMEN TO BACK KAFTANCIOĞLU AGAINST ERDOĞAN'S ACCUSATIONS

Meanwhile, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party co-chair Serpil Kemalbay criticized President Erdoğan at the HDP’s parliamentary meeting over his accusations towards CHP İstanbul head Canan Kaftancıoğlu.

"I denounce the Erdoğan rule’s hatred tone and lynch campaign towards Canan Kaftancıoğlu. We see that those who are part of the democratic struggle within the CHP, those who have universal values and raise voice for fraternity and peace have led to a big fear," adding that all the women should back Kaftancıoğlu.

As President Erdoğan’s AKP party and a group within the CHP party blame new İstanbul chair Kaftancıoğlu for being closer to the political line of the country's pro-Kurdish HDP party, Kaftancıoğlu said, "If I were close to the HDP line, I would do politics within the HDP at the moment."

Canan Kaftancıoğlu faces an investigative probe on charges of "terror propaganda" and "insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan" via her social media posts just after she was elected as the CHP party’s new İstanbul chair at a congress on Jan. 14.